Sierra leone News

HOW BANTA RESIDENTS KICK THEIR BLESSING

Written by Chris J kai

Monday, 01 March 2010 09:38

Residents of Mokanji, Banta Chiefdom, Moyamba District are today in a mood of melancholy as they took advantage of the rebel war to cannibalize the SIEROMCO bauxite processing plant, staff quarters and administrative blocks, and looted both vehicles and equipment for there selfish ends. Even the hospital wasn’t spared. Many of them thought at the end of the war, the Company would rebuild its demolished infrastructure but such expectation has remained a pipe dream reminiscing the good old days of SIEROMCO in Mokanji.

SIEROMCO is a company interested mainly in bauxite mining and since the company started its operation, it has been mining this mineral in the Moyamba District and specifically Banta Chiefdom. Many of the residents in the Banta Chiefdom were employed and receiving attractive salary. But the outbreak of the Revolutionary United Front War (RUF) saw the company folding up and thereafter the residents of Mokanji whether for survival during those difficult times or not looted all what the company left behind. This ugly picture angered the company when it wanted to restart operations after the war and therefore abandoned Mokanji that used to be the headquarters of SIEROMCO. Today, SIEROMCO is operating under the license of Sierra Rutile and has its main offices in Moriba Town.

Mokanji no longer has Street lights, free company transportation, pipe borne water, hospital, jobs, and other social amenities they used to enjoy. Residents of the town have to travel miles to get pure water and medical services. The roads connecting Mokanji to other towns are dilapidated; former senior staff quarters that hardly saw darkness and were ideal homes for decent personalities are now a forest for wild animals. You can today count in seconds the decent houses in the town. Those who depended on white collar jobs are in rags tilling farm lands, and hunting for rodents. Locally brewed Ethanol commonly known as “ORMORLAY” a strong alcoholic drink has replaced beer drinking, and used as a powerful sedative to bring to memory the merry yesterday and to forget the woes of the present.

Residents of Mokanji and its surrounding villages now do shopping once a week at the weekly Gbangatoke trade fare and Educational standard has also fallen even though it can’t be blamed 100% on the absence of support from the company. As they seem to be paying for their deeds, the bauxite mining still continues on their land.

SIEROMCO operates a new PW contractor under Rutile with headquarters at Moriba Town and workers are mostly drawn from that locality. But at PW the news is not encouraging. Workers have records of manipulated hiring and hastily wrongful firing of staff. Gondama houses the Bauxite processing while Nitti is used for shipment.

Bauxite mining will go on for years in the Banta Chiefdom. According to workers of the geology department of the company, Banta Chiefdom has the larger Bauxite deposit than Bumpeh Chiefdom Bo district. Despite Banta having the larger deposit, the Company turned deaf ears to the request of the land owners and the late Paramount Chief Edgar Margai for SIEROMCO to return to Mokanji. It appears the elders in the Chiefdom have accepted that they themselves should be blamed for the Company’s refusal to relocate to Mokanji.

Banta is home to the Margais but so far even Mr. Charles Francis Margai has refused to champion the course of restoring Mokanji to its former glory.